Block served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1986. He says the challenge of doubling food production by 2050 to help nourish an estimated 9 billion people can be met with creative adaptation of technology.

The speakers were picked as the school celebrates its 100th anniversary and birth as a land-grant institution.

The Landon Lecture is named for Gov. Alf Landon, a Republican who was Kansas governor from 1933 to 1937. Landon lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election.